


Of Knitting

by oddeyesight



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 13:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1780192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddeyesight/pseuds/oddeyesight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan is lonely and bored. Rose teaches him knitting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Knitting

You spend your time in the afterlife alone for a long time.

Not because anyone is trying to avoid you (although they _would_ have done it), but because your part of the dream bubbles is deserted as fuck.

The only person you actually speak to when you die is Aradia, and that’s probably because she is the self-appointed guardian of the dream bubbles. She explains the crucial shit you had to know before leaving you alone and searching for company, which apparently consisted of few iterations of the dancestors, none of whom wanted to spend more-than-necessary time with you. Moreover, as you rarely meet anyone in the first place, you have to try your best to occupy yourself in any other way you can, since if you wallow in self-pity, you’ll remember why you are dead in the first place and you are _not_ mentally prepared to handle that clusterfuck of a situation yet. Not. Yet.

You are deprived of company for weeks(?) when you reach a dream bubble made by one of your iterations, filled with angel dream-constructs singing their sweet-creepy-awful songs about their Lord. Since your train of thought was falling through sour territories, you happily welcome the distraction of angels, summon your wand from your sylladex, and begin the hunt of one of those motherfucking creepers.

Considering the strength of the angels, you search for a stranded one so that you can kill it without complications. After finding a likely victim, you lure the angel as far as possible until you reach an area that allows you to shoot it dead. The dream-angel is not as tough as the real thing, though, so your attack becomes overkill and breaks through one of the cathedrals. That cathedral was apparently the end of the dream bubble, and you stare at the debris for a moment before walking tentatively to the new area.

You know the land you’re walking in; it’s the land of Fakemage Pinkscarf. This is the first time you walk into a land of the humans, but you become disappointed when you see that it’s void of people.

You ponder turning back to the angels when a vague shape to your right catches your eyes. You squint, then you hurry towards it when it becomes person-like, faintly glad that you found someone else, even if they were a fakey-fake witch. Your company doesn’t share your sentiment when you catch up with her, however.

In fact, she seems downright disappointed, if her glare is anything to go by.

“I didn’t think I’d meet you in person like this, Pinkscarf.” You drawl, thickening your accent. “Actually, I thought that we would have nothin’ to do with each other after you fuckin’ blew up my computer, which was incredibly rude by the way.”

The increase of her disdain is directly proportional to the amount of words you say, and she is turning her back on you and leaving to her hive by the end of your greeting. The back-handing stings you, but she doesn’t outright tell you to fuck off, so you follow her silently to her hive. You’re desperate for company, so you don't say anything as you trail behind her.

You begin to see a white hive in the distance, but before you even wonder whether she’ll let you go that far, she turns to face you.

Her face is hard as she speaks. “What exactly do you want?” She says as she glares at you. “I apologise, but I’m not an expert in reading minds, so you have to tell me what it is that you wanted so much you kept following me. Is it “showmanship” lessons? Another alien romance proposition? I still refuse the aforementioned items, if they are what you’re pining after.”

You bristle at the accusation. “First of all: I’m over your little fake “magic” acts.” You snarl. “And second: as if I still want to be with some fuckin’ lowlife like yourself. Believe me, if I had anythin’ else to do other than stayin’ with you, I would of fuckin’ done it.”

She scoffs. “And here I thought you would actually leave soon.” She says. “Do you at least have any hobby to occupy yourself with?”

“My “hobby” is huntin’ and killin’ monsters stronger than you might dare imagine, witch. None of which presents itself to be killed at the moment.”

“What are you planning then? Silently watch me as I knit another cozy for my laptop?”

“....maybe.”

She arches an eyebrow, and you squirm as she gazes at you judgingly, until something seems to click with her and she shrugs. “Fine,” She says, “do what want; I’m not responsible if you eventually dissolve with boredom”

You blink surprised at her, then you follow her as she casually walks to her hive.

* * *

Even as you knit carefully, you still keep an eye on Ampora.

After your disappointing and impromptu encounter, you went to knit the cozy while thinking about your friends.You are doomed, and so they are. You died against Jack, who also slit Dave’s throat before. You still worry about John and Jade, whether they are alive or dead or… just ceased to exist. This worry was what drove searching for them moments after you fully realized your dead situation.

Putting these thoughts aside, it hasn’t escaped your notice that Ampora is attentively watching you. You thought that, after exchanging names and sitting in silence, he would leave eventually when watching you knit bored him enough.

Instead, he watches you knit with a strange interest on his face. Maybe he’s actually curious, and maybe he’s trying to occupy himself with anything, but you still tease him about wanting yet another lesson from you.

He hisses, and he splutters, and he looks such an affronted cat while throwing a hissy fit. You find it absolutely hilarious to watch, as you see him walk away in the snobbiest pose you ever saw on someone.

He returns soon, looking prissy as hell and asking you to teach him knitting, but only because, as he says it, “I’m bored outta my fuckin’ mind”.

You agree.

He does his owlish blink, and you start to show him the basics of knitting. He’s a surprisingly good learner, and you leave him with a basic exercise as you go to search for your friends.

Your search bears no fruit, and you return to find Ampora attempting to make a scarf based on the one stitch you taught him, because he’s apparently the person who thinks that he knows everything when he knows nearly _nothing_.

“Ampora. Ampora stop.”

He snaps his head to you and scowls.

“You need to learn more stitches; you won’t be able to use this stitch on everything you make.”

He whines soundly about how he was doing so good, how he great his new scarf will be, but he leaves the project alone, so don’t give him grief about it.

Well, not _much_ grief about it.

Your lessons continue, and aside from the usual complaints all knitters know (“How the fuck did my hair get in there, my hair has so much gel it won't move if you hit with a rock. “ “Is this scarf gonna end, or is it gonna keep on and on for the rest of eternity?”), his progress is promising. You even let him work on a few dummies that carry the faces of his friends. He’s smug about his progress, and he keeps being an annoying entitled tool, but you don’t him as dreary as you expected him to be. In fact, the ongoing arguments between you two about everything (science vs. magic, alien culture, etc.) are an indicative of a practical working relationship.

You are away on your usual searches of the surrounding areas when you hear a loud crack, and when turn you see a green tinted energy that came from the direction of your house. You return as fast as you can, dread slowly pooling in your stomach, and what you find is an empty house and a burned half doll where Eridan was.


End file.
